I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shelf for supporting articles, which is intended to be fastened or fitted, advantageously so as to be able to be removed, in the body of an item of furniture. In particular, the invention relates to a shelf that can be used in refrigerated compartments, such as refrigerated cabinets, refrigerating apparatus and refrigerators, for supporting articles, particularly food.
II. Description of Related Art
These shelves consist of solid plates made of mineral glass or organic glass, such as polycarbonate or polymethyl methacrylate, whether monolithic or laminated and whether transparent, translucent or opaque, these being provided with a plastic surround, whether complete or partial, obviating the risk of injury on the sharp edges of the plates and/or strengthening said plates.
Moreover, the edges of the plastic surround may be straight and uniform, or of more complex shape, possibly having in particular peripheral parts or extensions for functional or esthetic purposes. Thus, the front edge may form a handle for gripping the shelf and the lateral and rear edges are generally designed to cooperate with the body of the furniture, said body generally bearing racks for supporting the shelves, or supporting grooves or ribs in the side walls.
There are various assembly methods for joining the plastic surround to the glass panel: by encapsulation molding; by attaching a surround to the panel, for example by bonding, clip-fastening or interlocking the sides of the surround; or by shrinking the surround just after molding, the panel being in this case joined to the surround just after leaving the mold, before the plastic has completely shrunk.
These shelves are satisfactory through their practical and attractive shapes, and also by the fact that the assembly methods, in particular shrinkage methods, make it possible to achieve good consolidation and, where appropriate, good sealing between the glass panel and the plastic surround.
The present invention pertains to shelves for which the plastic surround encloses the edges or edge sides of the panel, especially by the plastic shrinking, such shelves having been disclosed by the filing company in the PCT international applications WO 02/076268 A1 and WO 06/059038 A1.
The surrounds of the shelves thus disclosed comprise at least one inward rim applied to the article support panel on at least one of the two faces of the panel. In practice, an inward rim is applied over the entire perimeter of the upper face of the panel, when considered in the use position. In this way, if any liquid flows out from food items placed on the shelf, it is retained by the vertical end border of this rim. In addition, beneath the lower face of the panel when considered in the use position, several rims of the surround are applied, these taking the form of rigid retaining lugs distributed over the entire perimeter of the panel.
In fact, these retaining lugs could be dispensed with, in particular if the frame is shrunk onto the panel, but it is preferable to provide them for safety reasons.
However, during manufacture, these retaining lugs, molded with the panel surround, prove to be problematic.
In most cases, the panel can be put into place without touching the aforementioned lugs, in particular if this operation takes place very rapidly after the frame leaves the mold and therefore within a period when the frame has practically not yet shrunk upon cooling.
However, in other cases, shelf manufacture requires a handling operation, this being all the more tricky the hotter the frame and since the lugs are rigid. As a result therefore, it is impossible to automate the insertion of the glass panel into the plastic frame.